What are the outdoor activities in and around Puerto Vallarta?
Antonio Trejo
Camping is popular in Puerto Vallarta. There are several stores downtown that sell everything that you would need for camping. There are lots of tour companies in Puerto Vallarta that offer camping, hiking, and other outdoor adventures like zip lining and rock climbing.
I used to work at a hotel for 4 years as a concierge and used to send people every day to all kinds of tours. There is a popular one called Outdoor Adventurer, which is a tour that includes...
Camping is popular in Puerto Vallarta. There are several stores downtown that sell everything that you would need for camping. There are lots of tour companies in Puerto Vallarta that offer camping, hiking, and other outdoor adventures like zip lining and rock climbing.
I used to work at a hotel for 4 years as a concierge and used to send people every day to all kinds of tours. There is a popular one called Outdoor Adventurer, which is a tour that includes tours going to the mountains, zip lining, waterfalls, camping, hiking, and jungle trekking. They also have ATV tours where you’ll go all the way up to the mountains, cross the rivers and see some animals in the wild while you’re on the ATV. There are about three canopies here, one of which has the longest line in Latin America, about 700 meters (2,300 feet). It is above the river so the view from there is amazing. There are islands around Puerto Vallarta and there is a lot of snorkeling and whale watching tours too. There are a lot of outdoor activities that you can do in Puerto Vallarta.
(Rappelling into a river near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, pictured.)
The short answer to what are the best places to live in the world is where you are happy 75% of the time. Cost of Living, ease of living and solid medical care are what you need to consider in finding the best place to live in the world. There are a few cities in Canada that are on the top 10 yet as a former Toronto resident we were looking for a warmer climate, solid infrastructure so we could take our careers virtual and a lower cost of living. We found that in Panama....
The short answer to what are the best places to live in the world is where you are happy 75% of the time. Cost of Living, ease of living and solid medical care are what you need to consider in finding the best place to live in the world. There are a few cities in Canada that are on the top 10 yet as a former Toronto resident we were looking for a warmer climate, solid infrastructure so we could take our careers virtual and a lower cost of living. We found that in Panama. Others have found it in Ecuador that is now up and coming and yet others found it in Spain and parts of Europe. We also needed to find a country that allowed us to get back to Canada in one flight, two max. As well as a country that was in our time zone as we are still working with North American clients. If one destination checked off the boxes for everyone that would cause huge problems as you can well imagine.
Many of the comforts of home are available here in Nicaragua, although, you have to make some adjustments. For instance, in the US, I don’t know too many homes that don’t have an electric dish washer. Here in Nicaragua, I can count on one hand the number of people I know have a built-in automatic dishwasher. Dishwashers are not common here because parts are impossible to get so if something breaks you cannot get it fixed. This is similar to the situation with...
Many of the comforts of home are available here in Nicaragua, although, you have to make some adjustments. For instance, in the US, I don’t know too many homes that don’t have an electric dish washer. Here in Nicaragua, I can count on one hand the number of people I know have a built-in automatic dishwasher. Dishwashers are not common here because parts are impossible to get so if something breaks you cannot get it fixed. This is similar to the situation with swimming pools. A lot of people in Nicaragua have swimming pools but I don’t know anyone with an automatic pool cleaner. In the States, every pool has one. Here, no pool has automatic pool cleaners because it is more cost effective to have someone simply clean your pool every day and vacuum it by hand. Therefore, we could afford the US $200 a month it would take to keep a gardener / pool worker / handyman rather than an automatic pool cleaner which would cost $700 to $800 plus another $100 per year in repair and maintenance.
Here in Nicaragua, we can recreate our standard of living in the US with some changes and some adjustments in how we live. These adjustments can give you not only a better quality of life but also as good as the quality of life that you have had in the US. You will realize that you can still have a good quality of life and still do without some of the amenities that you used to have in the States and really, it does not affect you.
Where do the expats in Portugal meet? Where are the Portugal expat communities?
Ana Ferraz
Most of the expat communities in Portugal are in Cascais, just west of Lisbon proper.
Cascais is a well-known retirement destination for the English people because of the connection that we have with England in the last century. Portugal is the oldest ally of England. We had a Portuguese Queen who married and English King. It is also popular for expats because of the golf courses. There are quite a lot of English clubs in Cascais such as the Rotary Club,...
Most of the expat communities in Portugal are in Cascais, just west of Lisbon proper.
Cascais is a well-known retirement destination for the English people because of the connection that we have with England in the last century. Portugal is the oldest ally of England. We had a Portuguese Queen who married and English King. It is also popular for expats because of the golf courses. There are quite a lot of English clubs in Cascais such as the Rotary Club, the Women’s Institute Club, etc. They even have a daily newspaper that is in English. There is also one in the Algarve as well, which is called The Portuguese News.
We have three English high schools in Cascais: Saint Julian’s, Saint Dominic’s, and the international school. These are all big schools so you would see that there is really a big expat community here. My daughter went to St. Dominic’s. The schools here start from primary and finish up and then they leave for the universities.
Another reason Cascais is a top choice for expat communities because it is very near to the airport and it has always catered to expats very well. Cascais has a beautiful landscape and a very nice weather. It’s a beautiful town by the coast. It used to be a fishing village, which has now turned into a tourist town. It’s a very appealing and very nice. It is also about 20 kilometers directly west of Lisbon, which is the capital of Portugal.
There are also lots of expats in the Algarve, the majority of whom are also English. The reasons include the golf courses, the beaches, the weather, etc.
The main expat communities of Portugal are Cascais, Sintra, and the Algarve.
(Shops with English signs, Sintra, Portugal, pictured.)
What would my neighbors be like in Bocas Del Toro, Panama?
JB Seligman - BUENA VISTA REALTY located in BOCAS DEL TORO, PANAMA
Your neighbors in Bocas del Toro are pretty much like minded other expats. They are adventurous, entertaining and very interesting people. There are two types of neighbors here. There are the reclusive neighbors who enjoy the peace and quiet and live on the outer islands. Then the other would be the neighbors who live closer to town. They are much social in nature because there is a larger social life in Bocas Town. It is a tourist town and that makes it a more...
Your neighbors in Bocas del Toro are pretty much like minded other expats. They are adventurous, entertaining and very interesting people. There are two types of neighbors here. There are the reclusive neighbors who enjoy the peace and quiet and live on the outer islands. Then the other would be the neighbors who live closer to town. They are much social in nature because there is a larger social life in Bocas Town. It is a tourist town and that makes it a more interesting and lively place to live.
I live in Carenero Island in Bocas del Toro and most of my neighbors are absentee owners. They live in Bocas del Toro for three to six months out of the year then they go back to the United States. Most of them are from the United States.
Life in Bocas del Toro with your neighbors is very much social, where everybody does get togethers. Getting together is a very frequent business. We end up having brunch over at somebody’s house or having happy hour party. Neighbors go back and forth in Bocas del Toro. At the same time, everyone has lots of good friends who live in Bocas Town or on another island and when they have a get together, they invite everybody. It is not necessarily a "neighbor’s thing" but a "neighbor’s friends-of-friends thing."
My immediate neighbors are expats. The rest of my neighbors are indigenous people who live in Carenero Island. There is a small village not too far from where I live. We all live together on the same island. We basically interact with almost everybody on Carenero Island. It is the smallest island on the archipelago. It’s also the closest one to the main town of Bocas del Toro, which we call Bocas Town.
There’s about 60% indigenous people and 40% expats on Bocas Town. It is on the main island of Isla Colon and there are 5,000 to 6,000 people. A lot of expats in Bocas del Toro have very much embraced the culture and are much involved in it as much as my wife and I are. We are friends with the expats and we are also good friends with the locals. That is very important and common. Most of the people who moved to Bocas del Toro want to be part of the cultural exchange. One of the best things about living and retiring in Bocas del Toro is that you can learn another culture and language.
I am not retired yet, but I can say that if you are an expat who wants to retire in Bocas Del Toro, you have to have something to do on this Caribbean island. If you are retired, you have to do something. It can be either volunteering for some type of social activity, which we have a lot of here in Bocas. There are lots of different things that expats can help the locals with. Retirement in Bocas means you have to have a hobby. To just retire in Bocas with nothing to do does not work; you’ll go crazy because you have nothing to do!
When I first came down here to Bocas, I was semi-retired. The thing that I used to wish back in the US when I had my company was that if I could just wake up in a Caribbean island with nothing to do. The only thing I can say right now is, be careful what you wish for! It’s terrible to have nothing to do in a Caribbean island. It is a situation where you really have to have something just for yourself to work. There people who retire here with nothing to do and they leave because Bocas is a kind of place where you retire if you want to be active. If you are sedentary, then you should consider other places such as Boquete or other retirement villages. Retirement in Bocas is a different type of retirement. The retirees who come to Bocas are active retirees.
There are no golf courses here in Bocas, but there is plenty of snorkeling. You can go into the jungles or walk on the beach. It really helps if you get yourself setup with some social environmental program where you volunteer to put water systems in an indigenous Indian village or volunteer for spay and neuter programs for dogs and cats here in Bocas. You can volunteer to teach children in schools or volunteer to teach people how to play guitar.
In Bocas, you have to have that certain kind of activity that lets you help other people, so that you have a sense of self-worth. I have met very few people who had actually nothing to do here, who lasted very long in Bocas.
We have a lot of retiree surfers. Bocas Del Toro is a world class surfing destination and you would be surprised how many 60 to 70 year old surfers we have down here.
What are the total one time only costs of moving to Belize, including legal, visa and immigration issues?
Ryan Wrobel - Wrobel & Co., Attorneys-at-Law
Every person who chooses to move to Belize has different interests and needs. Some people choose to enter Belize as a tourist and to rent a small apartment, so for them, the cost will be very low. Other people choose to retire to Belize, qualify the retirement program and want to purchase a beachfront home or a luxury condominium. Their cost to move to Belize would be far higher than in the first example.
If two people get on a plane, fly in and get their...
Every person who chooses to move to Belize has different interests and needs. Some people choose to enter Belize as a tourist and to rent a small apartment, so for them, the cost will be very low. Other people choose to retire to Belize, qualify the retirement program and want to purchase a beachfront home or a luxury condominium. Their cost to move to Belize would be far higher than in the first example.
If two people get on a plane, fly in and get their tourist visa at the airport, the cost to move to Belize is close to zero. There are no legal costs to get the tourist visa, and you just renew it every 30 days, assuming that you don’t do anything wrong.
In contrast, the range in cost for a married couple to qualify for the Qualified Requirement Program, including government cost and legal cost, is less than US $4,000 to $5,000.
Editor's note: Denis Larsen has consistently been kind, generous and helpful answering questions from our readers, so it was with great interest that we sat down with Denis April 5, 2017, to find out exactly what path he took to live in Mexico, and how it was working out. The result was unexpected, almost at every turn...]
Chuck Bolotin: Denis, you’ve led a very, very interesting life in a lot of locations. From what I know, in the US,...
As we arrived early to our appointed visit at the third floor dermatologist office we encountered a lone, smiling face and asked him if the receptionist had already arrived.
"No, she doesn't get here until 9:30" he tells us.
We thanked him and then he asked if we were from the USA. Of course he was too!
This is so typical of Panama. You say something to each other and a person overhears the English or the...
Living in the western end of Panama has its charm as well as its challenges. We often hear that folks miss certain products from home and many make routine treks to Panama City to take advantage of greater product availability. The truth is, there is greater variety in Panama City than in smaller cities and towns. This is often the case in more urban areas. But here in Chiriqui, if you look around long enough you are usually able to find most of what of you need in...
Camping is popular in Puerto Vallarta. There are several stores downtown that sell everything that you would need for camping. There are lots of tour companies in Puerto Vallarta that offer camping, hiking, and other outdoor adventures like zip lining and rock climbing. .png)
Most of the expat communities in Portugal are in Cascais, just west of Lisbon proper. 
Your neighbors in Bocas del Toro are pretty much like minded other expats. They are adventurous, entertaining and very interesting people. There are two types of neighbors here. There are the reclusive neighbors who enjoy the peace and quiet and live on the outer islands. Then the other would be the neighbors who live closer to town. They are much social in nature because there is a larger social life in Bocas Town. It is a tourist town and that makes it a more...
Every person who chooses to move to Belize has different interests and needs. Some people choose to enter Belize as a tourist and to rent a small apartment, so for them, the cost will be very low. Other people choose to retire to Belize, qualify the retirement program and want to purchase a beachfront home or a luxury condominium. Their cost to move to Belize would be far higher than in the first example. .JPG)
Editor's note: Denis Larsen has consistently been kind, generous and helpful answering questions from our readers, so it was with great interest that we sat down with Denis April 5, 2017, to find out exactly what path he took to live in Mexico, and how it was working out. The result was unexpected, almost at every turn...] 
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Living in the western end of Panama has its charm as well as its challenges. We often hear that folks miss certain products from home and many make routine treks to Panama City to take advantage of greater product availability. The truth is, there is greater variety in Panama City than in smaller cities and towns. This is often the case in more urban areas. But here in Chiriqui, if you look around long enough you are usually able to find most of what of you need in...